“As of last night, Mark Richt still wasn’t sure who would get the start at tailback for Georgia this weekend.

“I don’t even know who’s going to start right now,” Rich told The AJC’s Tim Tucker. “If Washaun (Ealey) was healthy the entire week, he might have gotten the nod.”

Ealey suffered a mild MCL sprain in his knee last Saturday against Kentucky. Ealey says the injury amounts to little more than “just a bruise.” After injuring his knee against UK he left the game, then returned to rip off his long trot of the night for 41 yards.

Caleb King is back from a two-game suspension and he could get the start against Florida if Ealey’s knee is tight or less than 100% in any other way.”

Nobody is worried about him. We’re just laughing at Meyer’s charade of moral standards and discipline. Y’all are no different than the school that y’all have so affectionately referred to as “the U” for years.

Worried about him playing? The proper word is “troubled” by the fact that someone kicked off a team for a serious infraction is mysteriously brought back and redeemed in the midst of a three-game losing streak.

True, while Rainey is probably an upgrade athletically he probably won’t be a difference maker in the game. This issue is about Meyer’s principles, or lack thereof. What Rainey did not once, but at least twice in threatening this woman is unacceptable behavior for any student on scholarship. To pretend that less than three months of time passage has changed his character is beyond idiotic. Florida fans should be speaking out, loudly, against this. They certainly did when it happened.

The problem is Meyer has a history of turning his back on normal standards of discipline when it comes to the UGA game. His reinstating a player for the game against UGA and then discarding him immediately afterwards a few years ago was Fulmer-esque. We aren’t talking suspended licenses, or speeding tickets here. Meyer, and all CFB coaches, needs to man-up on serious violations. None can prevent bad behavior 24/7 of all players but they certainly draw some lines that cannot be crossed….and stick with them, even through 3 game losing streaks.

Corch isn’t going to man up. He wasn’t going to do anything to Spikes last year after the attempted assault on Ealey, until espn’s Golic took him to task on national radio. Corch’s picture is in the dictionary next to ‘expedient’. He’s tough on players only when he’s forced to be. Otherwise, he’ll try to get away with anything he can.

I can understand playing an injury close to the vest and not fully disclosing whether a player is going to play or not. But this Rainey thing is BS…it really speaks to the character(or lack) of the Corch.

Exactly. It’s only fair. Now God forbid that you are a reporter quoting one of the players (accurately) for negative comments. Then he’ll punch you out…at least if the player were actually his kid. (Which it wasn’t, ’cause he has a daughter…not a player…., whom rather than get upset over being quoted accurately he just ignores outright over pleas to preserve his health and spend more time with family. So now I’m totally confused…if the player were his kid, he’d come to his defense, but for his real kid, he’ll just abandon her for his players…??? My head hurts…..)

Fellow GA fans: if you check out local Florida commentary, you’ll see some split in the Gator Nation about Rainey, tho most seem to support bringing him back. And I recall that during the Mettenberger saga, there were some (a minority, to be sure) who defended his actions along the lines of “boys will be boys.”

BUT I do see a difference: if Coach Richt had kicked the kid off the team, then he’d be gone for good. (Before Mett, there was Sanks, for example.) And I think MOST fans would support that. On the other hand, Urban Meyer has shown a tendency to zig zag on issues that put moral choices up against competing, and the “zag” comes down on the “competing” side. And I think MOST UF fans support that.

And this may reflect a tolerance in each coach’s institution and its fan base. I certainly do wish that UGA could boast the same number of recent national football titles as UF. But UF paid a terrible price in clawing its way into competing at a high level that I hope UGA will never pay or be willing to pay (I mean the Pell-Hall era post season bans and title ineligibility before they landed a coach who was both damn good and clean–yes, I do mean the not-so-Evil Genius). I don’t think this renders our institution or we as fans morally superior (we had the Jan Kemp matter, after all), but I do think we may have less of a “win at all costs” mentality than some of our conference fellows. If that’s cost us a title or 2, then so be it, so far as I’m concerned.

As for Rainey himself, the distraction for his team may be greater than the value he brings on the field. Personally, I think UGA wins this one, and by a decent margin (more than covers).

Why hasn’t anyone asked this question of the Corch? ” Would you be as forgiving if Raney had sent such a text to your daughter? Would you be so dismissive of that behavior if one of your family was threatened in such a way?” Just wondrin’.

My honest opinion is that what the kid did is reprehensible and deserved punishment. I think everbody agrees with that assessment? Where I think people differ is what is considered to be suitable punishement.

Rainey was arrested and charged with a felony. After the DA reviewed the case, that charge was materialy reduced. Anytime someone is arrested and booked on a felony charge, that record stays with the person for the rest of his life, even though the charges were reduced. I guess that is one form of punishment, but not very much. Second, as further punishment, the law requires Rainey to meet certain behavioral standards for some period of time and perform some. If this was you or me, that would be the end of it. Is this suitable punishment? The law says it is.

From a football standpoint, Rainey had additional punishment. He was originally kicked off the team. During that period, he did not practice or attend any team events. When his charges were reduced, he was allowed back on the team to practice, but was still suspended from games.

To date, Rainey has missed 5 games, which is nearly half the season. He has also missed 5 SEC games, which is more than half of the SEC season.

No one can argue that this is not punishment. Where people can disagree is whether this is sufficient punishment.

From my perspective, I think overall it is suffficient, and I say that as the father of three daughters.

Mike, I appreciate your approach to this issue. However, I must disagree. I am aware professionally of people who actually went to jail in Georgia for saying something exactly like what Rainey said. The Georgia charge is “Terroristic Threats” and I am sure that there is a similar statute in Florida although it may be called something else. You simply cannot threaten another person’s life like that and expect to have no consequences. I do not agree that he has been punished appropriately. Had he been any ordinary young man the charges would not have been reduced summarily like they were. He got lenient treatment in Gainesville precisely because he is a UF football player and for no other reason. Is this good for Rainey? What does this teach him about respect for the law? What does this teach him about respect for the rights of women? I fear that everybody in this sorry episode from the UF side is going to learn the hard way about this when the next time we all read about young Mr. Rainey is when he is indicted for a violent crime, probably against a woman, maybe even this exact one. You simply do not get a young aggressive (potentially violent) male to change his behavior by giving him a slap on the wrist. That actually encourages further misbehavior because he then will think he is bulletproof the next time.

The victim backed off after the national furor and fan reaction to this, we can only surmise why she did that, or if that affected the DA’s enthusiasm for pursuing the higher charges. I would have less of a problem with Rainey’s actions if it had stopped with the original text, that could have been just a stupid slip by an immature kid. When he threatened her afterwards is when we knew how dangerous he really was. I would have kicked him off the team, and out of school at that point. The number of games became moot if that action had been taken. And I don’t care what color jersey he was wearing.

Without having 1st hand knowledge, I cannot dispute your information. It certainly conflicts with the initial reports/interviews I heard. Even if it took the sister to make the decision to report this, it doesn’t change the level of threat in this situation.

I stick by what I said earlier, I wouldn’t want him to wear my school’s colors, nor my HC to rationalize this level of problem. We can all argue about traffic issues, but violence in this country should be shut down whenever it is encountered…period. JMO.